Manor Ward Labour Party members select John Kelly to be their ca

A Labour Party and NHS campaigner has been selected to represent the party in Manor Ward at May's local elections.

John Kelly was selected by Labour Party members in Crosby, Thornton and Hightown to contest the seat.

The Labour Party activist and campaigner has been an active member of the community leading the Manor Ward Labour Action Team.

He has lived in the area for over 30 years and is married with two grown up children.

John is a qualified social worker and has spent his career as a leading NHS professional. He worked in Health and Social Care for Sefton Council until leaving his post as Assistant Director for Adult Social Services in 2001 to become Borough Director of Adults in Knowsley working for the NHS Trust. In 2005 he was promoted to the post of Director for 5 Boroughs Partnership NHS Trust. He then went on to oversee the remodelling of adult care which resulted in the trust gaining Foundation status.

Earlier this year he retired from his post as Executive Director Operations after over 34 years' public service and is now a health and social care consultant.

John said it was his experience of working in the NHS which has given him the drive to campaign for the Labour Party.

John said: "I left my position in the NHS because I could see how this Tory-Lib Dem government was pushing to privatise our health service which will result in care being provided to those who can afford it.

"I am deeply concerned with how Conservative-Liberal Democrat government policies will affect the most vulnerable people in society. With more than 30 years' service in the NHS and as a former senior executive in the NHS, I am very concerned that this government's Health and Social Care Bill will not improve care for patients, will open the door to privatisation, fragment care and create an expensive central quango that will override the needs of local communities at a time when the NHS will have to find billions of pounds in cuts."

John said he was delighted to have been chosen to stand for Labour in Manor Ward.

John said: "I am honoured to have been given this opportunity to stand for the Labour Party in Manor Ward and look forward to continuing my fight to ensure that the interests of the people of Crosby, Thornton and Hightown are best served.

"We are seeing unprecedented public sector cuts which are hitting vital local services and putting people from right here in Crosby, Thornton and Hightown out of work. These cuts are affecting the Environment Agency who just last week revealed plans to revise its flood management because its funding from government has been slashed by the Tories and Lib Dems. This highlights that these Conservative-Liberal Democrat cuts are directly threatening our homes here in Sefton.

"And we are seeing the Tories and Lib Dems opening the door for developers to build on our greenbelt, threatening great swathes of our countryside here in Sefton.

"In the same way as we are seeing the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats attacking our NHS, this government is directly attacking the our communities here in the North West. It's ordinary families here in Crosby, Hightown and Thornton who are being hurt by these cuts.

"I will continue to fight for the interests of the people of Manor Ward and ensure that they are getting the representation on Sefton Council that they deserve."

Sefton Central MP Bill Esterson said John would be a fantastic councillor for Manor Ward.

Bill said: "John's experience in the NHS has given him a unique view of just what damage this Tory-Lib Dem government is doing to the NHS.

"His experience and skills make him an asset to the people in this ward as well as the whole of Sefton and he has already proved to be a formidable opponent of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats' slash and burn policies.

"He has seen first hand just what damage the Tories and Lib Dems are wreaking on our most valued public services and he is already at the forefront of the fight to protect these services for the people of Manor."